Barnako goes to Gnomedex

FrankBarnako

Format alert! Today's and Monday's columns are going to be a little different. While I wouldn't use the "B" word to suggest their design, what you're going to get is an account of my attendance at Chris Pirillo's Gnomedex conference in Seattle.

Wi-Fi is available at the Bell Harbor Conference Center here, so there will be lots of people blogging and writing while the day(s) roll on. Me, too. Comments welcome, at fbarnako@marketwatch.com.

2:13 p.m.

The future of syndication panel gets interesting with Steve Gillmor of the Gillmor Daily podcast. He is demanding that Yahoo
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and others work out the technology to make it possible for browsers and RSS reading software to know when you've read or listened to content on your desktop so you don't also download it onto your laptop.

Gillmor warns: "Soon, 25 million iTunes users are going to be hit with this flashing 'Download podcasts now' button, and then when Microsoft ships Longhorn in 2010 (with RSS syndication built in), we're going to be up to our butts in stuff. And it's going to become our full time job for the next few years getting this fixed."

1:58 p.m.

There's a panel on the future of syndication. Pretty geeky. Guy talking right now, called out of the audience by Gillmor, says he's spent 2 1/2 years of his life building an RSS reader. (My beanie's propeller is spinning.)

1:15 p.m.

The sessions are being Webcast. We'll go all day Saturday. Tune in at http://gnomedex.jot.com/Live

12:45 p.m.

Wet kisses for podcasting during a panel hosted by Doug Kaye as an episode of his "IT Conversations" podcast.

Dave Winer objects to the word "shows" to describe podcasts. Adam Curry says it makes no difference to him, it's just the term broadcasters have used for 50 years. Call them audio tours, learning on demand, whatever.

Curry says Apple's support for podcast will lead major media companies like Clear Channel Communications
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to put virtually everything into podcast form for time- and geo-shifted listening. "Traditionally billion dollar companies don't just go away," he said.

Doug Kaye says Apple's move will produce "a flood of stuff" from program producers. But, he adds, "It will still be possible for a small group of us to continue to talk to ourselves."

The session is being recorded, and Kaye says the audience here at Gnomedex may well be 400, but once the audio file goes up, it will be heard by at least 150,000 people.

1:38 p.m.

Pirillo again urges people in this bandwidth-challenged conference hall not to download big files. Almost 400 people attending Gnomedex, he says. Suggests we all wait to check our e-mail until the evening.

12 p.m. Pacific time

Lunch!

11:33 a.m.

The "big" Microsoft
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RSS announcement. Dean Hachamovitch, who heads up Microsoft's Longhorn Browsing and RSS Technologies showed the next version of Internet Explorer, for the first time. It will be very RSS-friendly.

He said Microsoft has been trying to do something with RSS for a while, but couldn't come up with anything terribly bright. "We stepped back," he said. "And we watched. People one-by-one at Microsoft started to get it."

When the new Explorer browser comes on a Web page with an RSS feed, a button will "light up" at the top. Next, click on a "Plus" button and you are subscribed. "RSS everywhere," is a new mantra at Microsoft. Users will also be able to subscribe to searches, too. "RSS becomes a natural part of a user's activity," he said.

Podcasting is powerful, the company also agrees. So, IE 7 will download podcasts as well as other RSS-enclosed content such as photos, videos, PDF files, and PowerPoint. "Any kind of file type."

Hachamovitch also announced Microsoft is offering developers new technology to extend the use of RSS for calendar items, top 10 lists, Amazon.com wish lists, and more. More information is available at blogs.msdn.com/ie

10:18 a.m.

Dave finishes up by singing "Yellow Submarine." You had to be there.

10:05 a.m.

There are several hundred people in the room. I see fewer than five women.

9:35 a.m.

Dave Winer is showing off his software. One big part of it is an open source editor for Web logs. Very simple. Very flexible. But, very frustrating for Dave ... as the conference room is packed with so many laptop users that the Wi-Fi network's maxed out its access points to the Internet. Even Dave can't get online to do his demo.

ARGHHHH.

Occasionally, we hear an AOL IM incoming message sound over on the other side of the room.

SOMEBODY's connected. Not us. Not Dave.

Dave says about 60 people are beta testing his new software. Release date, TBD "when the download experience for 80% of the people will be good."

9:25 a.m.

PR guy from Audible.com
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presses me with a copy of the company's announcement. Audible says its audio programming from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Charlie Rose can be delivered via RSS to iPods and "AudibleReady handheld MP3 players." The Podfather is happy. "There are three companies that have the potential to be huge in podcasting," Adam Curry said in the Audible release. "Apple
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Microsoft and definitely Audible."

8:30 a.m.

Got here.

FREEBIEs in a bag -- and a free T shirt. Yea!

7:30 a.m.

Off to Bell Harbor Conference Center. Dave Winer's doing an hour-long keynote. He'll be talking about some kind of outlining software he's been furiously developing non-stop for the past few weeks. Does something like make to-do lists easier, I guess. (Don't get p.o.'d, Dave. I'm an avid listener of Morning Coffee Notes and I love your passion.)

Dave's unhappy, however, with CNet. They picked up a blog post in which he said Microsoft
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today, here, will make it clear they have gotten, you might stay, "hard core" about RSS. Lists -- like Audible's top sellers, iTunes' most popular, and Web bookmarks. Anyway, he says it took them too long to pick up his announcement and he wonders whether it's because he's not a real reporter. Love that Dave. I really do. Dave's posting.

5:30 a.m.

Does the sun ever go down? It was light out at 9:30 last night. It's light out now.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

8:30 p.m.

I'm on Eastern time. I'm going back to the hotel. Just in time to see four guys arrive in a cab, to join the party. I recognized two. Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasions and the Daily Source Code's Adam Curry. Winer and Curry talked. Curry said, "I'm a lover not a fighter."

(Is Microsoft at work on a podcasting plug-in or client? Or will they leave it to Apple
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?)

8:00 p.m.

Spent some time with Don Katz, CEO of Audible.com
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(Before he started the company, he was an editor at Rolling Stone, so long ago that the Stones were shiny then).

Audible's introducing tools for podcasters Friday at Gnomedex. He thinks there's about to be an explosion of content, and wants to encourage it. Audible.com will help podcasters promote their programs.

Katz is a vibrant, energetic guy who is still passionate about the idea of selling books on tape and other audio programs, online, after almost 10 years (and one collapsed bubble). Remember, this is the guy whose company invented a device you could hook up to the Net to download audio programs (a prehistoric iPod).

7:45 p.m.

Dan Gillmor, Mr. Citizen's Media, tells me he just turned on collaborative posting to his new venture, Bayosphere.com. Says dozens of people have "signed the pledge" to offer their thoughts and comments and reporting (Doesn't this sound a tiny bit like John Battelle's Federated Media - a roster of smart people, each with some following, contributing thoughts and comments? Then, so too does Arianna's HuffingtonPost.com - opinionated people opining. It's all about the networks, I guess). Discussion forums are active now. Bayosphere.com.

Dan says the Los Angeles Times' Wiki-torial blowup should not sour them - or any other mainstream media outlet - on trying interactivity "It should inspire them to try something more," he said.

7:30 p.m.

Lots of meeting and greeting going on. First guy I shake hands with is Buzz ("I've got thousands of names in my contact list.") Bruggeman, an attorney and software developer from Florida. I first "met" him through a podcast he did with the GdayWorld.com guys, Mick Stanic and Cameron Reilly." Bruggeman developed ActiveWords, software that lets you add words to Windows which automate tasks like sending e-mail and going to Web sites and launching programs.

Don't believe podcasts have an impact? Bruggeman did his GdayWorld sit-down six months ago. When NO ONE knew what the heck a podcast was. About 50 minutes into the conversation, he said "If you've slogged this far, send me an e-mail and I'll send you a free copy of the software." Buzz says he got 300 responses, from 17 countries!!!

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